Credit Suisse analyst Jason West initiated coverage ion more than two dozen restaurant stocks, from expensive steak houses such as Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group (DFRG) to the fast food giant McDonald’s (MCD) and the coffee house chain Starbucks (SBUX), issuing a neutral rating for the broader industry.

As West writes:

Entering happy hour but without the discount… Fundamentals are turning more positive and multiple tailwinds should support future earnings for listed restaurant chains. However, we view those benefits as largely captured in current valuations. Stock selection is critical in 2015 and beyond.

So who are the best picks? Of the basket of 15 stocks that West now covers, he rated three at outperform – Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), Dunkin’ Brands (DNKN) and Panera Bread Company (PNRA). Price targets were set at $785, $56 and $190 respectively.

It’s no secret that the plunging price of oil has hit a lot of energy-company stocks pretty hard. The route has done plenty of damage to master-limited partnerships, or MLPs.

That pressure will continue until oil prices hit bottom, writes Credit Suisse analyst John Edwards in a note published today. Edwards and his team cut price targets on 10 names, and upgraded Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) to Outperform. As he writes:

We expect MLPs to be under pressure until crude finds a floor: Despite the positive valuation indicators based on yield spreads, we expect MLPs to be broadly under pressure in the near term until crude oil finds a floor. In this environment we would expect the more commodity exposed MLPs (read – upstream, gathering and processing, and coal) to be under greater relative pressure. Following the bottoming of crude we would expect, at least among the midstream, to be leaders relative to the names that are more commodity price agnostic. Based on the work of the broader CS Energy Team, we expect crude to bottom some time later in the 1Q, most likely in March as refineries are in full turn around season, undercutting crude oil demand. The continuing debate is how long crude takes to rebound off of its lows as there is broad agreement that the energy complex is not sustainable at current prices. As cut backs in capital spending bite there will less crude to offset the natural decline rate in the global market which should take the excess crude production out.

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) is just one of several names, from Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) to TJX Stores (TJX) hit with analyst downgrades.

Credit Suisse analyst Christian Buss cited rising competitive pressures and declining mall traffic for his decision to cut Abercrombie to Neutral from Outperform and reducing his price target to $28 from $53. He writes:

…that competitive pressures look to be intensifying in the teen apparel sector, delaying earnings power even with a significant cost restructuring and a shift in pricing strategy for core brands. We increasingly believe the threat of structural declines in mall traffic and the rise of deep value retailers like H&M, Zara, UNIQLO, Forever 21, and Primark will make it challenging for specialty retailers like Abercrombie who do not have the scale, speed of operations, or value perception with consumers to deliver sustained earnings momentum.

Champine argues that TJX’s growth potential does not justify the current valuation. She rasied her target price to $58 from $54.

As for Ross, Champine writes:

The stock has benefited from a flight to quality, and we do not expect ROST to live up to expectations in H2 and in 2015.

Shares of TJX fell 2.1%, while Ross fell 1.4%.

Mizuho cut Urban Outfitters (URBN) to Neutral from Buy and lowered its price target to $30 from $36. According to Briefing.com, the firm expects soft third quarter results and a disappointing fourth-quarter margin. “Although URBN may rein in SG&A spending, investors will likely still be disappointed with the lack of product-led strength and inconsistency in the portfolio of brands. While sentiment is likely low following the preannouncement, shares appear fairly valued at 15x.”

The stock fell 2% today.

BMO Capital Markets cut Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target set at $78.

Not all the commentary on Wal-Mart was negative. Telsey Advisory Group raised its target price to $87 from $80 following yesterday’s earnings report. MKM Partners increased the price target for the stock to $79 from $72, reiterating its Neutral rating and said the raise reflects recent multiple expansion across the market and retail.

Not everyone is thrilled that Sears (SHLD) plans to spin off its Lands’ End business.

The stock hasn’t moved much, falling 0.8% to trade at $50.25 in afternoon market action.

But Credit Suisse analysts Gary Balter, Simeon Gutman and Andrew Kinder argue that the move hurts the value of Sears and shows that the retailer was unable to find a buyer for the asset.

In a note published Friday, the Credit Suisse trio writes:

Lands’ End’s numbers are surprisingly weak, with EBITDA having declined by 50% in a two-year period; a period where JCP was donating apparel share and one would have expected stronger results from Lands’ End. EBITDA fell from over $200 million in 2010 to $107 million in 2012, well below the performance of what would be viewed as comparable companies in apparel.

That said, Lands’ End is probably the most profitable business Sears has left, and its spinoff will add $100 million to the company’s EBITDA loss projections. Balter and his colleagues write:

While not clear in the filing, we assume that Lands’ End will take on some debt in their capital structure and possibly pay a dividend back to the parent. However, given the valuation of the total company, we believe losing this EBITDA will be much more material to the parent than any dividend.

With the year winding down, investment banks are rushing to publish their outlooks for 2014, Credit Suisse sees the S&P 500 rising 9% next year. Andrew Garthwaite and his team lifted their 2014 target for the index to 1,960 from 1,900. He writes:

QE has meant that there are no cheap asset classes – but equities continue to look attractive in relative terms. Additionally, relative positioning, excess liquidity and a stabilization in earnings revisions are all supportive.

It isn’t a call that takes our breath away, especially given the one made yesterday by Morgan Stanley’s Adam Parker predicting the S&P 500 will hit 2,014 next year.

Big gains by U.S. stocks this year have left many people nervous that the market is looking stretched.

In fact, while Credit Suisse is underweight on U.S stocks, opting instead to overweight continental Europe, Japan, Korea and India.

Why? Garthwaite says Wall Street tends to underperform when global growth accelerates because U.S. companies have low operational leverage. And next year he sees global GDP growth accelerating to 3.7% from 2.8% during the previous quarter.

Amid worries that the Fed will start tapering its stimulus efforts, Credit Suisse is encouraging investors to stay bullish on equities.

In a note published Wednesday, a team strategists led by Andrew Garthwaite predicted a 15% upside for the S&P 500 index. The firm lifted its year-end target for the index to 1,730 from 1,640 and introduced a new target of 1,900 for the end of 2014.

Why? The firm laid out several reasons to stay overweight on equities.

Relative valuation: The equity risk premium is 6.1% while CS models suggest it should be more around 4.8%.

Earnings upgrades: U.S. earnings revisions have turned positive for the first time since May 2012, which is normally a good thing for markets. While two-thirds of CS clients think margins will fall over the next two years, Garthwaite and others say that’s not likely until rates rise or labor gets pricing power, which probably won’t come until 2015.

Economic momentum is troughing on several indicators:normally a good thing for equities.

Too much pessimism over tapering: CS argues that developed market central banks’ balance sheets will still expand even if the Fed steps off the stimulus pedal. Markets peaked seven months after QE1 and QE2 ended, and quantative easing could well continue into mid-2014. Garthwaite writes:

Markets are pricing in the first Fed rate hike for September 2014, according to our rates strategists. This is too pessimistic, in our view. Excess liquidity is still rising at 6%.

Fund flows remain supportive:Long-term equity weightings remain low despite 88% of clients see equities as the best-performing asset class over the next two years.The corporate sector is also set to start buying more.

Tactical indicators: Equity-sector risk is only slightly above average, market breadth is good and equity sentiment indicators are also just above average.

As for government bonds: CS se analysts reiterated that the bank sees government bond yields rising to 2.7% by the end of 2014. Garthwaite writes:

We believe the risk/reward balance in credit looks significantly worse than that for equities.

Word that Spain is working on a package of reforms as it prepares to ask for a bailout helped lift European stocks, and that optimism is boosting U.S. futures. European financial stocks are posting strong gains. Credit Suisse (CS) is up 2.3% and Deutsche Bank (DB) is trading 2.7% higher after reports that the bank will cut jobs in Germany.

The overwhelming majority of big investment banks saw revenues fall across nearly all of their business lines in the first half of 2012.

That’s according to new data out from Coalition, which carried out the analysis of first-half revenues at 10 global investment banks.

The Coalition Index measures the performance of 10 banks: Bank of America (BAC), Barclays (BCS), Citi (C), Credit Suisse (CS), Deutsche Bank (DB), Goldman Sachs (GS), JP Morgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and UBS (UBS). It found that the banks’ revenues declined 7.5% to $86 billion in the first six months of 2012, down from $93 billion year-over-year, as 10 out of their 13 largest business units recorded drops. Credit, commodities, equity derivatives and debt capital markets all experienced double digit declines.

The only two other business areas to experience increased revenues were prime services in equities, (+2.2% to $5.6 billion), and global emerging markets within fixed income, (+2% to $8.3 billion).

This may spell bad news not only for investors but employees as well: Analysis by Dow Jones’ Financial News of eight large investment banks found that investment banking jobs fell by around 100,000, or 5.6%, in the last year.

Financial stocks were falling in pre-market trading as Moody’s said it is considering severe downgrades to numerous large banks. Morgan Stanley (MS), Credit Suisse (CS), and UBS (UBS) could all see their credit ratings fall as much as three notches, and more than 100 other banks could also get hit with downgrades, the ratings agency said. Capital markets are still in turmoil, Moody’s noted, and banks are facing all sorts of challenged, including strict new regulations and wide credit spreads. Morgan Stanley fell 2% in pre-market trading.

The Moody’s warning, and continuing uncertainty in Greece, overshadowed another strong weekly jobless claims report showing claims fell to 348,000, the lowest level since March 2008.

About Stocks To Watch

Earnings reports, corporate strategies and analyst insights are all part of what moves stocks, and they’re all covered by the Stocks to Watch blog. We also look at macro issues, investor sentiments and hidden trends that are affecting the market. Stocks to Watch gives you the full picture of the U.S. stock markets, all day long.

The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.